And The Clock Goes Tick
by Verum Sole
Summary: "If a clock could count down to the moment you meet your soul mate, would you want to know?" A series of one shots involving any and all character meeting their soul-mates. Feel free to request pairings! Current Chapter: GerIta


**AN: Well, well, well. Look whose back from the dead. I'm terribly sorry for my short hiatus, a lot has happened in the past two months (! I should probably post the fourth chapter of TBITS pretty soon, huh?), and I needed a little break. Anyway, this is a short series of one-shots I decided to write based off a tumblr post I am way too lazy to look for. Basically the AU is that everyone is born with a watch that counts down to the moment where they will meet their soul-mate. I though "Hey! That sounds pretty cute. I should do it." Problem is, I have zero motivation to write pairings, so here's the deal. You send me a pairing that you want in the reviews, and I'll choose from the top three on tumblr! I'll promise to upload the one-shot as soon as I'm done. Sound good?**

**Whatever, this author's note is way too long for my liking, so I'll stop here. Please review if you like it!**

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As much as he loved his older brother, there were moments when Ludwig had to question some of the decisions Gilbert made. Now was one of those moments.

_One minute, and thirty seven seconds_.

If the watch on his wrist was correct, which he hoped to god it was, Ludwig had one minute and thirty sev-oop; make that one minute and thirty three seconds; till he would meet his soul-mate, the person he was destined to spend the rest of his life with. And out of all the places in the entire world to meet them, his older brother had forced Ludwig to go to a_ train station_, of all places.

Ever since Ludwig had checked his timer a little over a week ago, he had felt nothing but a constant, suffocating anxiety, constantly worrying about where it was going to happen, what his soul-mate would look like, etc. Now Gilbert who still had a good year on his timer; had tried to calm his younger brother down numerous times, telling him how it really wasn't that big of a deal. After all, it was pretty simple when you got right down to it!

"Look at it this way;" He'd say. "You'll find your soul mate, get to know each other; get married; totally invite me to be your best man; have a few kids, who knows? Then you'll die. The end." He would affirm, as if it was the simplest concept in the world.

Unfortunately for the both of them, Gilbert's "wise words" did little to comfort Ludwig. If anything, they horrified the younger and only served to worsen his anxiety. And to make matters worse, on the day Ludwig's timer hit it's last day, Gilbert had quite literally dragged Ludwig to the Berlin Central Train Station, excitedly chatting away about how he "had a feeling" and how he had by some higher power, felt that a train station would be the perfect place for Ludwig to meet his soul mate.

Because, you know, a constantly busy station filled with thousands of people shoving and rushing past each other, too occupied with their own schedules; would be a great place to meet one's significant other. If they managed to actually _see you._

Honestly, Ludwig sincerely thought his brother, while not incompetent, could really benefit from a few knocks on the head once or twice, just to get some sense into his brain, just once.

He looked at his watch again. Thirty seconds. Ludwig's head started to pound, and he could feel a stress headache coming on. He glanced over to his brother, who was standing not too far away. Eyes meeting, Gilbert waved and gave a large grin, which Ludwig supposed was meant to come off as reassuring, so he waved back, face still locked in a worried frown.

As the seconds continued to count down, and time was running out, Ludwig felt a growing fear spreading in his chest. Where were they? What if they weren't here? Oh god, what if he _was_ in the wrong place? He swore to any and all gods out there that if he was in the wrong place, he was going to MURDER Gilbert, regardless of any "special intuition" Gilbert claimed to have.

He turned around once more, glaring at his older brother. Gilbert's wide smile withered a bit, turning into a sheepish grin as if for once in his life willing to admit he might have a made a mistake.

Suddenly, Gilbert's grin disappeared all at once, and he pointed just ahead of Ludwig, mouth open about to say something. Ludwig didn't have time to turn around to see what Gilbert was trying to address, before a clumsy young man slammed into him, nearly knocking the both of them over.

"Umph!" The stranger grunted. Ludwig stumbled a bit before catching himself, looking down at the man who had bumped into him.

The young man looked to be in his early twenties at the most, with short, messy auburn hair and amber eyes, which at the moment were filled with impatience and slight panic. After he had collected himself, Ludwig almost found himself ducking to avoid the man's frantic gesticulations while apologizes rushed out in a thick Italian accent.

"Ah! I'm terribly sorry! Please forgive me! I'm in a bit of a rush, I have to meet someone and I think I'm running late and I didn't see you and I'm sorry for getting in your way-" The man rambled, panic now more than evident on his face. Ludwig found himself rather embarrassed by the other's actions, wasn't he overdoing it a bit?

"No, no. It's fine, I shouldn't have been in the middle of the walkway, I sho-"

_Beep. Beep._

Whatever Ludwig was about to say was cut off by a sound coming from his wrist watch. He froze for a few moments before looking down at his wrist.

The timer read 0:00.

He sucked in his breath, and looked up once more at the man standing before him. This wasn't his soul-mate, was it? No, this couldn't be right..could it?

Through the pounding of blood rushing in his ears, Ludwig heard yet another annoying beep resounding, not from his watch, but from the man directly across from him.

The other let out a soft "oh" as he too looked at his timer, which sure enough, had counted down to zero. The two met eyes for what seemed like the first time, and Ludwig got a good assessment of the other's features. He was small in stature, a few inches shorter than Ludwig, and had a rather girlish figure now that Ludwig thought about it. Though he was reluctant to admit it, the young man was attractive. Ludwig's heart began to beat faster.

"O-oh..um..this is..kinda awkward.." The young man stuttered, glancing to the side with an uneasy smile. "Um..I'm Feliciano Vargas, nice to meet you!" He introduced himself, hand outstretched. Ludwig shook hands with Feliciano and introduced himself as well. Both were silent, the air still awkward and stiff as neither knew what to do with the situation, until Gilbert trotted up and put his arm over Ludwig's shoulder.

"Hey, Lud! What's the hold up? Did your watch go off, yet? Has my baby brother found his soul mate?" He inquired, much to Ludwig's embarrassment. He looked over at Feliciano and smiled. "Oh? This him? Not bad. I'm Gilbert, please to meet ya." He stated, outstretching his arm in the same manner Feliciano had done only minutes before. He and Feliciano shook hands and Gilbert turned back to Ludwig, giving him a smirk. "I like this one. He's cute." He said, causing said Italian to blush.

"Shut up, brother." Ludwig said, moving out from under Gilbert's arm. He looked back at Feliciano, who looked rather uncomfortable with the situation. He looked away and cleared his throat.

"Ah..Gilbert. Can you..give me a moment? Please? I'll call you over when I'm done." He requested. The albino looked slightly hurt at Ludwig stating he was unwanted, but his smile didn't falter as he understood.

"Ja. Whatever." He said. "You two have fun, I'm going to chill by myself." And with that, Gilbert left.

Ludwig looked back at Feliciano once he was sure his brother was gone, only to find an amused grin on the other's face.

"That's your brother? Heh! He's funny." Feliciano giggled, much to Ludwig's embarrassment. Ludwig offered an awkward smile in return and nodded.

"Ja. Sorry about that…Gilbert can be a bit..blunt at times." He said. For a moment at least, the tension between the two dissipated and both relaxed slightly. The moment didn't last long, however, for within a few moments Feliciano's laughter had ceased and Ludwig's smile faltered, both now left once more with the current situation.

"So." Feliciano started once more, clearing his throat. "Um..I had a train to catch. Eheh.. I was just ready to head back home to Rome actually. I'm from Italy. Came here to visit a friend. " He explained. "But..I..sorta..missed it. You know, the whole, eh, watch thing?" Ludwig nodded in understanding, not quite meeting the other's gaze. Feliciano nodded as well, and continued. "Yeah…so I guess I'll be in Berlin for a little longer than I expected. Do you wanna..join me for a lunch break? I didn't eat a lot this morning and I kinda want to talk to you more because of the whole "soulmate" thing." He finished.

Ludwig thought this over for a moment, contemplating Feliciano's offer. On one hand, if his watch wasn't faulty, then Feliciano was his..soul-mate. Oh god Ludwig blushed just thinking of it like that. Damn it, how was he going to ever going to get anywhere with this man when he couldn't even talk to him?

In truth, he did want to get to know Feliciano more, especially if there were bound by fate. He looked behind him, spotting Gilbert among the crowd, where he seemed to be chatting with a young blond man. It surprised even Ludwig at times how easily his brother could start a conversation, even with a complete stranger.

He turned back to Feliciano, who still looked at him with those curious, bright, amber eyes.

"Would..um, would you excuse me for a moment? I'll be right back." He stated. Feliciano nodded, albeit looking quite confused. Ignoring that for the moment, Ludwig turned and rushed over to where his brother was sitting, interrupting his conversation.

"Gilbert. Can we talk for a moment?" He asked, glancing at the man his brother was talking to, who shifted uncomfortably at the sudden intrusion.

Miffed at being interrupted, Gilbert scoffed and gestured to the man sitting next to him.

"Dude, I'm talking to someone." He said. "Oh, by the way, this is Alfred. He's a buddy of mine from college. Alfred, this is my little brother, Ludwig." Ludwig shook hands with Alfred, who smiled warmly and flashed him a friendly grin.

"You didn't finish college." Ludwig reminded.

"Shut it, we were buddies the year before I dropped out." He explained. "Ah, fuck it. Alfred, excuse me a moment, alright?" Alfred nodded, and Gilbert rose from his seat, lightly shoving Ludwig out of irritation. The two brothers moved to a slightly more secluded area of the train station near the restrooms to talk. Ludwig glanced back to Feliciano, who glanced around anxiously and tapped his foot.

"Ludwig!" Gilbert called, snapping the German back to the conversation.

"Huh?"

"You wanted to talk to me? Out with it." Gilbert pressed, eager to get back to his previous conversation with Alfred.

"Oh. Ja." He stalled, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "Feliciano, the man you met back there."

"Soul mate?" Gilbert interrupted.

"Yes, shut up. He, um, asked me if I would accompany him for lunch." Ludwig said, avoiding Gilbert's gaze for once.

"Then go."

"W-what?"

"Go. What's the problem? You timers went off, you're bound to each other anyway. Join him for lunch." Gilbert shrugged, already beginning to turn away from his little brother.

"I can't!" He admitted, grabbing Gilbert by the shoulder. Gilbert sighed and put a hand to his face, and Ludwig flushed as he realized that for once the roles had been switched and the older brother and little brother were finally playing their parts.

"Why?" Gilbert asked, once again facing Ludwig. Ludwig was at loss of how to respond to this for a few moments, not quite knowing why he felt as if he couldn't.

"I…I don't know." He said, only causing Gilbert's scowl to grow.

"You're just being a chicken. If you don't go, then I'll go up there right fucking now and embarrass you so fucking badly you'll be red for months. OR I'll just go up and accept his offer for myself as a substitute. I wasn't lying when I said he was cute." He winked, immediately stirring a reaction in Ludwig.

"You wouldn't." He dared.

"Are you really going to put it past me?" Gilbert shot back, a dangerous, teasing look in his eye.

Ludwig was silent for a few more moments, knowing his douchebag of a brother probably wasn't bluffing. He sighed deeply and put a hand to his head, feeling yet another stress headache coming on.

"Fine." He said.

"Fine, what?"

"I'll go."

Gilbert grinned smugly at this, slapping his brother playfully on the back. "'Atta boy! Go get em, Lud!" Ludwig flushed at this, moving away from his brother.

"Thanks." He replied, heading back to where Feliciano still stood, albeit looking a bit distracted. When he noticed Ludwig, however, a relieved sigh escaped him and he smiled.

"Um, sorry to keep you waiting." Ludwig apologized awkwardly, running a hand through his hair.

"It's fine!" Feliciano said. "So, do you wanna come to lunch with me? I'd like to get to know you more, if that's alright." He asked once more, a small flush forming on his own cheeks for once. Ludwig glanced to side nervously, and nodded, clearing his throat once more.

"Ja, that would be nice." He said, lighting up the other's face.

"Yay!" Feliciano exclaimed childishly. "Alright, let's get going! I know this great cafe nearby that has the best lunch in town, I swear I could eat there everyday!" He rambled, going on and on as he pulled Ludwig by the wrist. Though Ludwig was only catching half of what the young man was saying, a shy smile spread across his face and he felt his past anxiety melting away as Feliciano continued to talk.

Looks like Gilbert had a feeling after all.

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**Cut off abruptly, but that's mostly because I wanted to finish this rather quickly. Make sure to leave request! (Sorry this sucked). Actually, speaking of my shitty writing, I'm in need of a beta! If you're interested, drop me a PM please!**

**-VS**


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